Most Famous Nickel in The World Sells for $4.2 Million
If you’re looking for a wild story, you could do worse than the one a 1913 Liberty Head nickel has to its credit– which is one of the reasons it just sold for $4.2 million.First off, the nickel is one of only five known to exist. But beyond rarity, the coin has a juicy backstory. It was secretly and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then – lo and behold – found to be real and worth millions. That’s a big story for five cents.ADVERTISEMENTThanks for watching!Visit Website“The 1913 Nickel is one of the few coins that transcends into the non-numismatic world,” said Ian Russell, president of GreatCollections, the official auction house of the American Numismatic Association. Russell just paid $4.2 to a Florida family for the rare nickel with the compelling history.Hailed as “the most famous coin in the world,” the 1913 Liberty Head nickel started life as a cheat. It was struck at the Philadelphia mint in late 1912, the final year of its issue, but with the year 1913 cast on its face – the same year the Buffalo Head nickel was introduced to replace it. Mint worker Samuel W. Brown is suspected of producing the coin and altering the die to add the bogus date.Unafraid of being prosecuted because the statute of limitations had passed, Brown offered his altered coins for sale at the American Numismatic Association Convention in Chicago in 1920. The five illegitimate coins remained together under various owners until the set was broken up in 1942.ADVERTISEMENTThanks for watching!Visit WebsiteADVERTISEMENTThanks for watching!Visit WebsiteADVERTISEMENTThanks for watching!Visit WebsiteGeorge O. Walton, a North Carolina collector, purchased one of the coins in the mid-1940s for a reported $3,750. The coin was with him